10 GROUSE AND BLACK-GAME SHOOTING. 



birds may of course be put up when a number of people 

 are scouring the woods ; but the shots will neither be so 

 many nor so fair. 



Black-game and grouse are easily tamed ; ptarmigan, 

 I believe, never. The keeper of the pheasantry at 

 Rossdhu had a black-cock, a grouse, a partridge, and a 

 pheasant confined together. They agreed pretty well, 

 and the grouse, being a hen, hatched two successive 

 seasons. The first year the whole of this cross-breed 

 died ; but the next, with great care, a couple were rear- 

 ed. They were both cocks, and, when come to their 

 full plumage in winter, were a blackish brown, some- 

 thing between the colour of a grouse and a black-cock. 

 They were presented by my late father to the Glasgow 

 Museums, where they may now be seen. I have given 

 in the frontispiece an accurate likeness of that in the 

 College Museum. 



Before ending this subject, I may put gentlemen on 

 their guard against two ways of poaching grouse and 

 black-game, I believe not generally known. The first 

 is, hunting the young packs before the moors open, 

 with a very active terrier or " colly." If the dog under- 

 stands the business, he will chop a great many in a day. 

 On a moor in Roxburghshire, I saw a sheep-dog, accom- 

 panied by a young farmer, performing to admiration. I 

 had the curiosity to watch their proceedings until I saw 

 the dog snap a young grouse, quick as thought. The 

 other plan is, to set a rat-trap in the green springs 



